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Vacations should be fun for the whole family, but children are often the pickiest about their entertainment. To keep short attention spans from waning, you'll need to plan a kid-friendly vacation that can delight all ages. Enjoying the great outdoors is a smart place to start, while theme parks and children's museums offer more manufactured fun.

National Parks

Exploring rugged scenery is an adventure for families with grade school-aged children, especially at national parks in the United States. National Park Passports and junior ranger programs add to the appeal of these trips, but even winding down a hiking trail without those extra incentives is exciting for kids. "Travel + Leisure" recommends Acadia on Maine's coast as a kid-friendly park, as it has traffic-free carriage paths that are safe for hikers of all ages and experience levels. Meanwhile, places like Yosemite have rafting, cycling and more to entertain every member of the family.

Active Vacations

Children are active, which makes tropical getaways and adventures in the snow appealing to the whole family. Islands with swimming, snorkeling and whale watching are a hit, with Honolulu, Hawaii, being a ripe choice. Here, your family can swim with dolphins, hit the Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park (hawaiianadventurepark.com) or build sand castles on the beach. For chilly thrills, California's Lake Tahoe has skiing, tobogganing and horse-drawn carriage rides, while Colorado's Telluride Ski Resort (tellurideskiresort.com) caters to families with a ski school for kids and Kids Night Out program -- and that lets parents enjoy the snow and romantic evenings out on their own.

Theme Parks

Anaheim's Disneyland (disneyland.disney.go.com) and Orlando's Disney World (disneyworld.disney.go.com) are among the most kid-friendly theme parks in the world, and for many American children, visiting one of them is almost a rite of passage. Disneyland has a sister resort next door called Disney's California Adventure (disneyland.disney.go.com), which has some bigger roller coasters that might appeal to older children. And if you can hit only one city in California, San Diego is a dream town for families with its world-class zoo (sandiegozoo.com), Zoo Safari Park (sdzsafaripark.org) and SeaWorld (seaworldparks.com). This is one of the few cities where you can view giant pandas and take in a show performed by orcas and dolphins.

Urban Adventures

As long as you keep a firm grip on young ones' hands, busy cities are exciting places for children to explore, and older kids might even enjoy taking in the cultural attractions. For instance, children might enjoy recognizing Washington, D.C.'s sites, and the whole family can squeal at being about to tour the White House. Meandering through Colonial Williamsburg is another fun experience, thanks to reenactments and hands-on activities. San Francisco is one of the country's most kid-friendly cities, with bustling Fisherman's Wharf, the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars and interactive children's museums such as the Randall Museum (randallmuseum.org) and the Exploratorium (exploratorium.edu). And when children need to run free, miles of beaches are sure to entertain, come sun or fog.